The Oklahoma Republican Party is being criticized for a Facebook post comparing food-stamp recipients to feeding animals in national parks.

The message posted Monday on the party's official Facebook page says 46 million Americans participate in the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program, or SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps.

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The post then says the National Park Service encourages people not to feed animals because they "will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves." The post concludes: "Thus ends today's lesson in irony."

Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Randy Brogdon posted an apology to the Facebook page on Tuesday morning.

"Last night, there was a post on our OKGOP Facebook page, and it was misinterpreted by many. I offer my apologies for those who were offended – that was not my intention.

This post was supposed to be an analogy that compared two situations illustrating the cycle of government dependency in America, not humans as animals.

However I do think that it’s important to have conversations about government welfare programs since our dependency on government is at its highest level ever.

Quoting President Reagan, “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.”

As read in our Oklahoma Republican Statement of Principles, we believe that “free market principles are the best to stimulate our economic development rather than government subsidies or programs” and I was doing my best to echo that view.

Again, I apologize for any misconceptions that were created."

About 604,000 people receive SNAP benefits in Oklahoma, mostly the elderly, disabled and children.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services called the post "shameful."